One, two, three.
It was just that easy for the Ducks on Friday night as they swept the Beavers 25-22, 25-16, 25-17 to cap off their 2011 campaign.
Oregon was paced offensively by Alaina Bergsma with 12 kills and three aces. Also in double digits was Katherine Fischer, who added 11 kills of her own.
The Ducks never trailed in the first set, taking control of the set halfway through on a 7-2 run that put the Ducks in the driver’s seat.
The second set played out in a similar fashion, with the Ducks going on an 8-2 run in the middle of the set and eventually winning 25-16.
Oregon made quick work of the Beavers in the third set, winning 25-17 and never trailing. The set was tied only once — at one — and the Ducks led the final frame by as many as 11 points.
The match was a marked turnaround from a Tuesday night defeat in Corvallis which the Ducks lost in straight sets and never led.
“I think we came out with a lot more energy here at home,” Bergsma said.  “We definitely had a lot more fire; it seemed like we had more life on the court.”
Bergsma said that the Ducks’ defense in particular played up to its ability on Friday night.
“We were digging a lot of balls and we just weren’t doing that on Tuesday,” Bergsma said. “And we were serving really tough, which messed up (Oregon State’s) offense.”
That defensive effort was not lost on head coach Jim Moore.
“This is the best defensive team I’ve ever coached,” Moore said. “There’s no question about that.”
The Ducks will now travel to Honolulu to take on Colorado State in the NCAA Tournament. Although he was disappointed that the Ducks didn’t get to host a postseason game, Moore was more upset that the Pac-12 received little respect from the seeding committee.
“To have the winner of the Pac-12 seeded seventh just seems incredibly bizarre to me,” Moore said. “At one point you had four Pac-12 teams ranked by the coaches in the top five, and then you don’t have anybody top five in the seedings at all; it makes no sense.”
Although the Ducks would have certainly liked to host a match, there are worse places to go than Hawaii.
“It’s a bummer that we didn’t get to host but there’s nothing you can do about that,” sophomore middle blocker Ariana Williams said. “We do get to go to Hawaii, which is pretty nice.”
Colorado State is among the best blocking teams in the nation, but Moore believes that the tough competition the Ducks faced in the Pac-12 will prepare them for the Rams’ tough defense.
“Washington is the best, I think, and Stanford’s second best,” Moore said. “And we out-blocked both of them.”
The Ducks are in a bracket with some of the toughest teams in the country including Hawaii, Pepperdine and Nebraska. After a November that saw the Ducks with three wins over top-five teams, however, they aren’t intimidated.
“We can beat tough teams,” Williams said. “But we need to stay in it with the teams that aren’t so tough.”